REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF BIRDS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890, 



By Robert Ridgway, Curator 



Speaking in general terms, the routine work has consisted of the 

 usual duties of receiving, unpacking, cataloguing, identifying, labeling 

 aud storing specimens ; correspondence ; supervision of the taxidermist 

 and his assistant, and of the carpenter engaged in remodeling the exhi- 

 bition cases ; re-arranging the mounted collection as the cases became 

 ready for their reception ; fastening label clasps to the stands of the 

 mounted collection and attaching printed labels thereto, and numerous 

 other matters, the mention of which would render this report tedious. 



The number of specimens added to the collection during 1889-'90 is 

 considerably less than in 1888-'89; but this is rather a cause for con- 

 gratulation, the cabinets being already overcrowded. A list of the 

 principal accessions of this department will be given in full further on. 



The character of routine work in the arrangement and classification 

 of the collection, and in the preparation of the exhibition and study 

 series, may be briefly summarized as follows : 



Nothing has been done with the study series, this work being neces- 

 sarily deferred till new cases are received. The exhibition series has 

 been very greatly improved, only five cases and four wall-cases remain- 

 ing to be arranged, two of the latter not having yet been remodeled, 

 while the former were completed by the carpenter and painter during 

 the curator's absence from Washington. These cases will be taken in 

 hand at the earliest date practicable, and it is hoped that, excepting the 

 wall-cases, two of which are to hold a special exhibit not yet perfected, 

 while the other two are yet to be remodeled by the carpenter, these 

 cases will be put in order within the next four weeks. 



Among special researches prosecuted upon material belonging to the 

 department may be mentioned the working up of the extensive col- 

 lection made on the Galapagos Islands aud in other parts of Tropical 

 America by the naturalists of the Albatross, the results of which were 

 published in the Proceedings of the Museum, Vol. xn, pp. 101-139; an 

 extensive collection of Costa Rican birds, submitted for the purpose by 

 the director of the Costa Rica National Museum ; * a careful revision of 

 the very difficult Dendrocolaptine genera, Xiphocolaptes and Sclerurus.] 



* Proceedings, xi, pp. 537-546. t Proceedings, xn, pp. 1-31. 



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